Oh, boy, Cantabbers: the summer of slam is almost here, and you could tell by the wall-to-wall packed house last night! It’s hard to keep talking about our open mic without bragging, but we can only take partial credit for last night: Michael F. Gill and the Brighton Word Factory crew successfully crashed the mic to bring us a telephone-game version of the Odyssey. What!
Once Odysseus cleared the stage, we had room for landlocked Omaha poet Ross Hickerson. Ross brought us a deep, dark selection of the work that graduated him from the slam stage years ago. A brave and consummate performer, as well as a captivating storyteller, Ross let us wring all the goodness out of his extremely rare touring experience. Thanks for making us a stop on your two-city tour, Ross!
The night was capped, as always, by an open slam… But this time, the slammers came from all over New England! The final pairing was Robin Merrill (from Portland’s Rhythmic Cypher Slam) paired up against Princess Chan (from Lowell’s Mill City Slam). Congratulations to Princess, who took the $10 in her first open slam at the Cantab.
…And if you liked that, you’ll love this: we’re back next week with a NorthBEAST Regional National Poetry Slam style 4×4 poetry slam, featuring teams from Rhythmic Cypher, Mill City, Slam Free Or Die, and your very own 2013 Boston Poetry Slam Team. As if that weren’t enough, we’ll also be hosted by the MC of the 2011 National Poetry Slam Finals himself: Nick Fox! Come early for the show as we’ll be shortening the open mic just a bit to make room for all the regional slammers in the house.
Boston Poetry Slam Online